New Orleans police on Thursday were investigating the death of a woman whose decomposed body was found in Armstrong Park.

Eliot Kamenitz, The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans police work a scene inside the gates of Armstrong Park where a body was found next to the Municipal Auditorium Thursday morning.

A man walking his dog about 9:45 a.m. smelled a "foul odor" coming from the side of the Municipal Auditorium on the Basin Street side of the park and discovered the body amid bedding material, said officer Hilal Williams, a Police Department spokeswoman.

John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner's office, said the woman's body was in an advanced state of decomposition and had likely been alongside the building for some time. Because of the state of decomposition, investigators could not immediately tell if there were any signs of trauma to the body, nor could authorities immediately classify the death.

An autopsy will be performed to determine how the woman died.

Investigators were processing the scene as a murder in case it turns out the woman was killed, Williams said, adding that it is a standard Police Department procedure when investigating suspicious deaths.